Friends,

https://www.facebook.com/122153354450111982/posts/122157558284111982

Marie Shimada (D-Freeland), candidate for Island County Commissioner, District 1, posted this on her Facebook page on July 20, 2024 8:40 am.

Friends,

Thank you to the many of you who worked alongside me these past few years who did your best to vocalize all the positive bridge-building and community collaboration that I was involved in at work. Thank you to those of you who wrote careful and considerate letters filled with tangible examples of my leadership, which went unpublished. Thank you to those of you who have stopped me on the street or grocery store, who have met for coffee, and who have hosted dinner parties to seek out the truth. Thank you to those of you who also saw something wrong happen and supported or donated to our campaign to keep the positive momentum going. Many of you recognize that it doesn’t serve the public well to publish gossip and rumors in place of real issues, and I am grateful for such thoughtful and compassionate supporters.

I announced my candidacy last November and immediately started garnering wide support from all over our community from local businesses, labor unions, climate advocates, and even Island County employees. While I was initially determined to keep my work separate and my campaign focused solely on MY priorities for the future, there grew an overwhelming burden to endure behavior that I did not find acceptable. I spoke up about wrongdoings, and I have been publicly criticized for sticking my neck out in pursuit of what is right. If elected, I will be the type of Commissioner that our community needs who can tackle difficult issues and speak up when something is wrong.

To be clear, my decision to stay in this race and focus on my campaign is based on my desire to bring adaptive leadership and strong advocacy to District 1, and that is supported by the countless people who have invested in me and my campaign.

What has been most heartbreaking about the negative experiences I was enduring is that it was also starting to happen to people voicing support for my campaign – from people putting out my yard signs to people who posted on social media about my campaign. My supporters don’t deserve to be badgered or ostracized by our opposition’s support, and I truly felt the need to distance myself from what was happening at work so that I could focus and prioritize on the much more important County Commissioner race.

The path forward is for me to become the strong voice our community is relying on to address critical issues of importance, such as housing access and natural resource protection – to win this race and not be bogged down in speculative gossip.

Even in the face of such intense opposition to seeing new ideas or progress, I worked hard to stay focused on our campaign’s determination to maintain a positive, community-building effort. I believe that gives us all an opportunity to do better work. We get to vote for better. This election, you’re not just voting for me.

You are voting for our community.
You are voting for our environment.
You are voting for local businesses.
You are voting for County workers.
You are voting for every little girl who is watching this behavior and wondering if she has a safe future in politics.
You are voting for our future.
You are voting for your children and grandchildren’s futures.

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